The Speech Therapy team at Danang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy, celebrated Trinh Foundation’s 10th birthday. The speech therapy team is headed by Dr Thuy Cao, who is also the Director of Rehabilitation at the university. She has a team of five speech therapists, including Dr Hien, Ms Cam, Ms Van, Ms Thuy and Ms Nhi. Dr Thuy and Dr Hien both completed the 2016-17 TFA Paediatric Speech Therapy Course at Phạm Ngọc Thach University of Medicine in HCMC. Seth Koster is also part of the speech therapy team at the university. Seth is a speech pathologist and part-time TFA volunteer from the United States, who has recently made Da Nang his home. Seth joined the speech therapy team in July last year. Sarah Day has also recently joined the team full time on assignment with the Australian Volunteer Program.

The speech therapy team invited the rest of the Rehabilitation department, with many of the physiotherapists also joining the celebrations. The team took the opportunity to dress in Vietnamese traditional ao dais and enjoy the afternoon together sharing speech therapy stories and discussing where Vietnam speech therapy would be in another 10 years time. Dr Thuy shared her dream about Vietnam one day opening a professional peak body to support the growth and development of the profession, as well as ensuring the quality of training and clinical services well into the future.

So while local Vietnamese speech therapists have so much to thank TFA for, there is a real energy in Vietnam amongst therapists, excited about what the future will hold for their profession. There is much anticipation in the air as everyone prepares for the opening of both the Masters and the Bachelors in the coming year or two. Speech therapists of Vietnam are very keen to continue to collaborate closely with TFA for at least another 10 years!